Groundhog Day in Iowa: TV themes that could energize Carver-Hawkeye Arena

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With @BoilerBall having Rocky Poster Night (awesome idea), I think more basketball and football schools should do the same. Have in-game trivia, contests, costumes featuring characters. Which theme sounds the best for future @TheIowaHawkeyes events?

ANSWER: It’s Camo Night this evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the Iowa-Minnesota wrestling dual. It makes sense considering among both much of the fan base and wrestlers hunting is a popular form of entertainment.

Earlier this year, Iowa had a Star Wars theme for its game against Penn State. People were dressed in Star Warscostumes and other attire and many in-game announcements featured Star Wars-related videos. Plus, the official trailer was released during halftime. In addition, Purdue basketball scheduled Rocky poster night on Wednesday and highlights landed on SportsCenter.

It made me wonder, on Groundhog Day no less, what type of topics should Iowa athletics introduce for games next year? I posed that question on Twitter, which allowed just four answers, and the hit HBO show Game of Thrones won the poll. Just a tad bit behind was 1990s/2000s hit sit-coms Seinfeld and Friends.

Some of you wonder why the basketball program would need anything. Well, the games don’t always sustain themselves during winter. The general public and students give legitimate reasons why they fail to show for home games, whether it’s the time, the weather or whatever. That’s why the timing of Purdue’s Rocky poster night was brilliant. For Iowa, in a season such as this one, something fun and different could enhance even entertaining basketball games.

So here are five suggestions for Iowa to consider next season to liven up the Carver-Hawkeye atmosphere during a long basketball season:

Game of Thrones night in early December. What other way to liven up a nonconference December basketball game than with the theme “Winter is Coming.” The show’s final season is likely to air in April 2019, and the interest is universal among the students and older fans.

Super ’70sTV characters and more. Iowa already employs a DJ in the student section, why not bring out the disco and the ’70s threads, too? Pick a ’70s TV character — Shaft, Fonzie, Mary Tyler Moore — for costumes and showcase a show and a song during TV timeouts.

Golden Girls night at a women’s basketball game (h/t to Todd Brommelkamp). Have Golden Girls trivia and videos during media timeouts. There’s definitely a nostalgia for the show.

Super Hero Night! From Batman and Wonder Woman to Spider-Man and Black Widow, super heroes are fashionable, whether it’s D.C. Comics or Marvel characters. This would entice parents to dress their smaller children in their Halloween costumes as well as older students and adults to do the same.

Seinfeld/Friends. For many of us 40-somethings, these were the TV shows we remember from NBC’s Must See Thursday lineup. Again, a clip here and there during media timeouts could go a long way. Definitely make it happen for a Northwestern game.